Companies spent $2.8billion (EUR8.72bn) to advertise on US sports broadcasts in the first three months of this year according to Nielsen Media Research - an 87 percent increase on the same period a year earlier when about $1.5bn (EUR1.66bn) was outlayed on such advertising.
The turnaround, which is in line with an overall rise in US advertising spend of 0.4 percent, comes in a period that included the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, the NCAA college basketball championships and the Super Bowl.
Excluding the Winter Olympics, US advertisers committed about $1.7bn (EUR1.85bn) to sports programming in the first period of 2002 with companies spending $472m (EUR514.67) on NFL broadcasts and $108m (EUR117.76m) on NBA coverage. Spend on college basketball rose 13 percent to $439m (EUR478.67) from $389m (EUR424.16) the previous year.
For more information and statistics on televised sports in the US, check out the in-depth archive of our sister site www.SportBusinessTV.com
According to the latest research, advertising spend on sports programmes in the US has increased significantly in the first quarter of 2002 compared to the same period the previous year.
